The Hill's Morning Report — Presented by PhRMA — Final stretch to the midterms amid backdrop of violence

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The midterm elections take place in eight days and candidates are making their closing arguments to voters amid a backdrop of terror threats and violence that has stunned the nation and ignited debate in Washington over who is to blame.

The president described the “hate in our country” as a “terrible, terrible thing” and said the death penalty would be fitting for the alleged Squirrel Hill shooter, who was apparently driven by hatred of Jews and refugees.

But Trump also said he would not scale back his aggressive and hostile tone toward his political enemies or the press, amid worries from lawmakers that the toxic political culture in Washington has spun out of control.

“I’d have a much different tone, frankly, if the press was evenhanded. If the press was fair, I’d have a much different tone all the time. But I’m fighting the media, I’m fighting — the media is not being honest and I’m fighting that lack of honesty so I have to have that tone. Otherwise I’ll never get my points across, we’ll never get what we have to get across, and we are making America great again.” — Trump

Critics in both parties are pointing fingers at the the president, alleging that he’s set a permissive tone by flirting with fringe elements, stirring up racial animus and employing bare-knuckles rhetoric aimed at dividing, rather than uniting.

“Hate is on the march in America. And when hatred is given a safe harbor, when it’s given space to fester, when it brazenly puts itself on display in a historic American city, when its distorted world view is fueled uninterrupted in forum after forum on the web, when it hears an American political leadership say good people can be found among those spewing this ugly bile — it grows.” — Biden

“The person with the biggest bully pulpit right now is the president of the United States, for better or worse. And it's mostly for worse. And the way that he continues to divide us, the way that really his whole political strategy is about division, creates a toxic climate, a climate that is just sulfurous … you cannot preach division 365 days a year, you can't stoke people's animus towards the other, you can't vilify people coming to the country as murderers and rapists, and then, on the day tragedy strikes, sound a different note.” — Schiff

"I think the president needs to be more clear in his rhetoric, and doesn't need to be as caustic in his rhetoric." – Lankford on CBS’s “Face the Nation”

The White House is rejecting the connection between Trump’s rhetoric and the recent spate of threats and violence.

“Everyone has their own style, and frankly, people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences. But I just don’t think you can connect it to acts or threats of violence … The president and I have different styles, but the president connected to the American people because he spoke plainly.” — Vice President Pence

Between now and Election Day, the president will campaign to energize conservative voters. His words at each rally and during a possible trip to Pittsburgh will be studied closely as Americans grapple with two inexplicable attacks, one based on religious hatred and the other apparently inspired by a virulent strain of partisanship.

Trump and Pence are fanning out this week in an effort to protect the GOP majority in the House and possibly grow their advantage in the Senate.

With a few exceptions, the president is sticking to states he won in 2016 where there are competitive Senate races. So far, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia and Montana are on his itinerary, but expect a few more stops to be announced in the coming days.

Trump appears intent on doubling down on the culture wars with attacks on the media and liberal “mobs.” Immigration and the migrant caravan making its way toward the U.S. will also be a major focus for the president in the coming days.

Democrats, meanwhile, are making health-care costs and bread-and-butter economic issues central to their closing argument.

The National Journal’sJosh Kraushaar reports that privately, House Republicans expect to lose 30 to 35 seats, but there are fears that their defeat could be even larger than that. Democrats need to flip 23 seats to win a majority in the House.

The Memo: Trump’s base will be tested in midterms.David Remnick: The midterm elections are a referendum on Trump.

More from the campaign trail … Early returns show voter enthusiasm is off the charts (The Associated Press) … The Florida Senate gubernatorial race has turned into an all-out brawl with racial conflicts and allegations of corruption (The Hill) … A first-time campaign manager for Trump tries to defy doubters (The New York Times) … Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) scrambles to win over Latino voters in Texas Senate race (The Hill) … Dem leadership hopefuls dole out millions in campaign cash (The Hill) … Voters across the country will decide on major environmental policy questions in Election Day ballot initiatives (The Hill).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

WHITE HOUSE & ADMINISTRATION: The president is expected to use a Tuesday speech about immigration to explain his determination to seal off the U.S. southern border from migrants, casting his executive action as a national security priority (The Washington Post).

Mexico offered to allow Central American migrants trekking via caravan toward the United States to remain in the southernmost states in Mexico as refugees. The migrants said they did not trust the Mexican government because they believe Hondurans who already applied for refugee status had been sent back. On Saturday, the migrants said they continue to seek safe passage through Mexico to reach the United States (The Associated Press).

Transgender policy: A dispute that could have a significant impact on the Trump administration’s reported plans to narrowly define gender could soon trace its way to the Supreme Court (The Hill).

***

Energy: Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, is booming on federal lands under Trump administration policies. Seeking to work with the oil and gas industries to promote more domestic energy production, the administration is auctioning off millions of acres of drilling rights to developers, according to on-the-ground reporting (The New York Times).

The Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. releases its report on personal income and outlays for September.

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ELSEWHERE

> In financial markets, world stocks had their worst week in five years last week. How bad was it and why? (Reuters). … Internet stocks plunged and old tech found new friends (Bloomberg). … The economy is flashing signs it’s downhill from here (The Wall Street Journal). … Democratic leaders seize on the falling stock market to raise public doubts about the durability of the Trump economy (The Hill).

> A.I. in science: To predict the next big earthquake, scientists turn to artificial intelligence (The New York Times).

> A.I. in investing: Artificial intelligence will change investing (U.S. News & World Report). “True machine learning can move into the realm of making future forecasts.”

> ART-i-ficial: A distorted painting “produced” with artificial intelligence sold last week for $432,500 at Christie’s in New York, a sum that far exceeded the winning bids for an Andy Warhol print and a Roy Lichtenstein bronze work, both of which sold at the same auction. A.I. technology in the art world has been a thing since around 2015 (The New York Times).

THE CLOSER

And finally … Here’s a social media trend from Ireland we’d like to see catch on in the United States on Nov. 6: “Dogs at polling stations” (The Irish Times).

Could there possibly be a more attention-getting way to encourage American voters to participate in democracy than asking them to bring their dogs to polling places, photograph adorable canines waiting while ballots are cast, and then share images as inspiration to others to follow suit #dogsatpollingstations?